Home sales on a 22-month romp

By Nancy Sarnoff

Updated 10:59 pm, Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Houston's real estate market saw big gains again in March, with sales and prices continuing to rise across the area, a realty group said Tuesday.

Buyers closed on 5,779 single-family homes last month, a 17 percent jump over the same time a year ago and the 22nd straight monthly increase.

As the market heats up amid a falling supply of homes for sale, properties are selling for above their asking prices, and bidding wars are increasingly more common.

"Our local economy is growing stronger by the day," said Danny Frank, the association's chairman, crediting continued job growth and low mortgage rates for boosting the market for homes.

The median price for a single-family home shot up 6.5 percent to $172,000, an all-time high, according to the report, which is based on March sales primarily in Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties that were handled through the Multiple Listing Service.

Activity in the townhouse and condominium market was especially active last month.

While just under 10 percent of the overall market, sales of these properties spiked 47 percent in March. The median price for one was up 3 percent to $139,000, and inventory tumbled to 3.7 months, meaning it would take that long to sell all the townhomes and condominiums on the market based on sales activity over the previous year.

"There are multiple offers typically, and the people are bidding them up," said Sue Marsh, an agent with Keller Williams Realty, who specializes in selling townhomes inside Loop 610.

Marsh said demand for these properties has risen as single-family homes have gotten more expensive.

"It seems nowadays people want more new and updated finishes, and that's what the townhomes afford them," she said.

Buyers and agents are hopeful that more properties will come on the market this year.

For now, supply is the lowest it's been in more than a decade.

Inventory fell to 3.5 months as the number of available properties at the end of March declined 22 percent from a year earlier to 32,704.

All price segments saw increases except for the very low end.

Pending sales are up too, meaning the positive trend is expected to continue.